UAE FOOD BANK OPENS FIRST BRANCH IN AL QUOZ
dubai — The Dubai Municipality (DM) officially opened the first location of the UAE Food Bank in Al Quoz on Wednesday morning.
Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director-General of DM, said the location is the first among 30 that will open across the country over the next four months, contributing surplus food to the needy.
Located just off Al Khail Road, the first food bank contains a big refrigerated container where food donated by establishments is stored and through which charities collect them to distribute it to those in need.
Lootah said the locations are selected depending on areas with communities of people in need. “For example, we are looking to cater to areas next to workers accommodations. Then, in cooperation with municipalities across different emirates, we will spread the food bank across the country.”
Lootah, who signed partnerships with 30 food establishments and charity organisations, noted that the first food donation mission will be directed to famine-hit Somalia.
“Everything in today’s containers, which had dry and packaged food from four hypermarkets, will be donated to our brothers and sisters to Somalia,” he said.
In its first phase, the location will store packaged and canned food given by food companies and establishments, while the second phase will focus on collecting fresh food from hotel banquets and restaurants.
Lootah noted that 100 fridges, supervised by a trained volunteering team, will be distributed across Dubai mosques during Ramadan to enable residents to donate their surplus food under strict safety guidelines.
“A lot of canned food sadly goes to waste as it nears its expiry date. Having an initiative that collects the dry food doesn’t only minimise our waste but also helps people in need,” said Lootah.
Currently, one refrigerated truck is deployed to collect food items from nearby hypermarkets and establishments and store it in the location’s container.
Noura Al Shamsi, head of permits and applied nutrition section at the DM, said a maximum of two trucks will be provided on each location to collect food from nearby establishments, with inspectors on sight to check if it follows safety guidelines.
In UAE’s average households, 39 per cent of waste is food, and the ratio increases to 55 per cent (1,850 tonnes) during Ramadan, according to DM’s estimates.
An estimated three million tonnes of food (Dh14 billion) is wasted annually in the UAE with an average of 196kg of food per person per year.
Announced in January, the UAE Food Bank aims to eliminate waste, making Dubai the first city in the Middle East to achieve zero waste through distributing surplus fresh and dry food to those in need at both the local and regional level.
“We have the food establishments and companies who provide us with the surplus food; charity organisations which distribute the food and logistic partners who are in charge of storing the food in the right way,” noted Lootah.
He added that the authorities aim to expand the food bank initiative globally over the coming years to respond to foreign aid while the UAE Food Bank will direct its efforts to the local communities in need in Dubai and across the UAE.